Chapter 24
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
LYVIA
An unnatural fog covers the sides and top of the floating island, one that does not shift with the weather.
– History of Votruvia, Kellan’s private library, the Hydra.
Lyvia – Borva, Votruvia
“Evony. Ezrich.” Mother Eghan’s warmth flowed like the soft flames dancing in the center fireplace of the small sitting room as she spoke with me. She repeated the names of her grandchildren, the bright blue eyes she shared with her daughter and granddaughter glinting against fresh tears.
“Morwyn had children,” she continued.
My heart cracked along with her voice.
“She had a life…”
Tears burned behind my eyes, and I nodded, despite knowing she couldn’t see me.
“I only knew her for a short time, but yes,” I replied. “I think she had a really wonderful life, however short it might have been. She loved fiercely.”
Mother Eghan hiccupped, and a thick tear rolled over her round cheek.
“She had a wonderful life,” the old healer repeated, nodding her head. “She’s dead, but she lived. Thank you for bringing her back to life for me.”
I gripped the shaking hand Mother Eghan reached toward me. Her hands patted their way up my arms until they reached my shoulders, and she pulled me into her. Emotions threatened to smash through the steel door I slid shut as Morwyn’s mother sobbed into my shoulder.
The joy at learning of her daughter’s happy life, however short it had been, shone brighter than her grief in the hour we spent together, and I couldn’t help but smile as I realized Evony and Ezrich had a living grandmother. When would I see them again? I’d left Evony so quickly after Bear’s death…
The flames in the hearth sputtered as the door to the small study swung open, a soft gust of cedar and leather-laced air floating in as Kellan poked a head in. His brows rose in curiosity as they darted between his mother and me.
I blinked, my gaze sliding to Kellan’s bare torso as he stepped into the room, and my mouth went dry.
His dark auburn hair was wet, the tips hanging just past his shoulders and dripping water down his chest. The gruesome Marisarma M brand left a pebbled scar in the center of his chest, bordered by four clean slices stretching down his pectorals.
Muscles roped over his stomach, and my gaze slid to the fuck-me lines tempting my eyes to follow them before they were cut off by his leathers.
I snapped my eyes back to Kellan’s, and the corners of his mouth kicked up for the briefest moment before he turned back to his mother.
“We’re leaving soon,” he said to both of us. “Everything all right in here?”
I tore my gaze away from him and straightened as I looked to his mother.
Her smile stretched into a wide grin as she nodded and huffed a laugh. “It’s more than all right. You’re an uncle, Kellan.”
Kellan’s demeanor shifted as we left Eghan House behind and loaded our things at the docks.
He appeared shocked at learning his sister’s fate and even joyful at learning éitilte, his little flier, was actually his niece.
But soon after, Kellan’s shoulders had tensed, and his brows had drawn down in something like concern or regret as we’d made our way back to the Hydra.
The squall of seabirds mixed with the bustle of activity that our departure drew forth, and a host of pirates I’d yet to meet boarded the ship.
The sail from Borva to the Arx, the mountain in the center of the Votruvian Islands, only took a day, the majority of which Isla and I spent in Kellan’s hidden library, devouring the information he held on the Arx.
“Mr. Death God said nothing about the mountain being in the sky. Tynan seems like an asshole,” Isla murmured, snapping a book shut with the slap of her fingers.
“Careful with that!” I snatched the book from her hands, checking the spine for damage. “This is old.”
“Old and useless,” she quipped. “And boring. Do you think your pirate lord has a copy of the Sensua in here? Or a Votruvian equivalent?”
I rolled my eyes and shook my head, but I smiled as my mind drew forth a fond memory from the Living Library.
“It’s no wonder no one has been up to the Arx,” she continued. “Without a Bellator’s caeluma, nobody could reach it. Though I supposed if Olienna was still around, she could have flown a ship to the top.”
I nodded, frowning at the mention of the old Bellator.
According to Tynan, Sintarrak had indeed entered the Realm of Vael already, and Olienna had been his first target, forcing his way into her body and ripping her powers out.
That scream we had all heard after the gate opened had been Olienna dying.
Sintarrak had used his power over the mind to project her cry into our heads—a threat and a promise of what was to come—before he disappeared, leaving her body behind in a husk. Where had he gone?
I turned back to the papers, forcing the phantom scream out of my head and focusing on the threat at hand. Yet a certain rush of anticipation squeezed my chest as the thrill of a new discovery surged in my veins.
All the texts in Kellan’s library came down to the same thing.
There were no records of anyone traveling to the Arx, yet there was plenty of evidence that suggested people once had.
Most notable were the cages that hung on long chains from underneath the rocky mountain.
Low enough to be accessed from a ship below.
They had been used regularly as a form of punishment and ultimately a death sentence in the last hundred years the Marisarma Lords had been in control.
I stood and stretched my arms, telling Isla I needed some fresh air, and made my way through the captain’s quarters, pausing at Kellan’s black wooden desk as I spied the white copy of Fabia’s Fables.
I wasn’t sure why I hadn’t told Kellan this book had appeared in the Living Library last year…
Saying it out loud somehow felt like admitting something I wasn’t sure I was ready for.
I flipped the book open, thumbing my way to the first story, “The People of the Stars,” the humans and demigods who stole the power from the gods and brought it to the Realm of Vael.
I scanned the pages, my brows drawing in as I read about the lowly Messenger god who tricked the humans, orchestrating their rebellion and fathering an entire race of demigods without them knowing.
Sintarrak, the Messenger god with the Palaega power, the power of the mind.
Kellan’s lineage led back to the very god who posed the biggest threat to our realm.
My brows furrowed as I thought back to that power.
Olienna had harnessed the Palaega power.
Did she have some connection to Kellan? And would Kellan be able to access that power?
Did he even want to? He’d been searching for a different Bellator Bone, the Celestyn, because he believed it belonged to his family.
The pirate lord had some power over the mind for our consciousness to have merged into some shared dream last year, but he’d been so angry afterward. As if I’d been the one to intrude on his dream.
My vision went foggy as a sudden rush of memories swarmed. Heat surged to the center of my core as our shared dream played behind my eyes, and I slid the pads of my fingers from the book forward across the smooth wood of his black desk. It had been so real…
The door to the captain’s quarters swung open, and I jumped, snatching my hand away from the desk and pulling it to my chest.
Kellan’s dark form filled the space, the tip of his enderleaf smoke glowing orange in the dim light of his cabin as he stepped inside and paused. The door swung shut, and he pulled the smoke from his lips, his eyes darkening as they landed on me, and then the desk.
“I was just looking—” I sputtered, heat creeping up my exposed neck.
“Looking…” he mused, closing the space between us and tilting his head, the scar on his lower lip lightening as it curved upward in a rogue smile. He arched a single brow. “Remembering… Who’s thinking about our dream now?”
I huffed a laugh and brushed nothing off my leather vest as I pulled my gaze away. Sweat dampened my chest. The room was notably warmer as Kellan took a step forward, the tips of his fingers tenting over the surface of his desk.
My stare slid from his hand and up the length of his arm to the tattoos snaking along his strong neck, looking strangely similar to the darkness that slithered under my own skin. I paused as my gaze landed on Kellan’s dark eyes, marveling at the marbled gray hidden deep within.
He unclenched his jaw as he shook his head slightly, eyes darting between my own.
“That dream pales in comparison to what the real thing will be like. When I’ve handled you—”
“Handled me?” I cut him off with an arched brow, heat building in my midsection.
His chin dipped, and his features darkened as he leaned his head down, a stray strand of hair following the movement and brushing my shoulder.
“When I’ve lured moans to your lips, Bonscaíh. When I’ve studied you like a book,” he purred, his hand sliding along the black wood and landing on the opened book beside us.
His gaze slipped to my mouth, and my teeth pressed down on my lower lip.
“When I’ve splayed open your pages…memorized every line, every word that is you. When I’ve—”
The door to the hidden library slid open in a soft hush, and my face snapped to the back wall where Isla’s petite form slipped into the office. Her ebony brow arched as she surveyed us.
“Don’t mind me,” she murmured through a grin, shuffling slowly through the room and scanning the small amount of space between our forms.
The door leading to the main deck whooshed open before she could reach for the handle, and Raek’s face peered in.
“We’re an hour out from the Arx,” he said, nodding to his captain. “And the web has been strung.” Raek’s red brows narrowed, and his mouth stretched into a bloodthirsty grin.